Education and Social Change

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Transcript of Education and Social Change

European Education: Policies and Inequalities Recognise the importance of policy as a driver of social change and as a reaction to the perceived direction of social change Identify some key themes of education policy over the last 20-30 years Change and policy hyperactivity convergence work, skills and education welfare and education Agent of change rhetoric as policy driver 'life is nothing else but movement, motion and change, when those stop, there is no more life' (Sztomka 1993:9) 'change is inherent in the very nature of things' (Whitehead 1925: 179 in Sztomka 1993: 9) Things cannot stay the same Patterns of social change +qualifications Reversal of gender inequality no change in class inequality ethnicity and attainment Policy change England - usual suspects - Forster, Fisher, Butler, comprehensives, 1988 ERA See Giddens Ch17 5th Ed or Ch19 6th Ed A word on warm words diversity and opportunity choice= good, but problematic if you want equality Choice= waste and oversupply What has changed? Curriculum teachers regulation schools FE and HE Why all this change? Knowledge economy Information society Post-industrial society Rhetoric of meritocracy Common EU direction Globalization of education remember migration and international students? Target 50% 18-30 year olds with HE qualification by 2010 links - work technology migration social change as intended or unintended? family and household crime 47% 2010/11 EU Differences in educational attainment See Mau and Verwiebe pp185-6 for details Scandanavia highest levels and lowest inequalitiesSouthern Europe lower levels and higher inequalityVery unequal systems = France, Belgium, Hungary, GermanyHigh staying on rates in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia Dimensions of Changeaverage performanceinequality of performancedrop out rateshigher education participation ratesgraduation rates Source: Barnes 2011: P7 [Social Trends 41 ‘Education’] Source: Platt 2011, P115 Source: Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills 2008 Source: Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills 2008 [Now Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] OECDPISAEU On average, a socio-economicallyadvantaged student scores 88 points higher on the PISA reading test than asocio-economically disadvantaged student, a difference that is equivalent to morethan two years of schooling. (OECD 2013) Source: OECD 2013 Percentage of children obtaining five+ GCSEs grades A*-C, by social class of parents, England within school differences vs between school differences are key